One motorway, two tunnels and a pass that closes in winter

The valley has three doors: the low one, from Ivrea, which is the normal one; the Mont Blanc tunnel, which arrives from Chamonix; and the Great St Bernard, which has a tunnel open all year and a pass at 2,473 metres that stays shut from the first snow until May. Inside the region there is a single valley floor road, and everything climbs from it.

By car and motorhome

The A5 motorway starts at Turin, climbs the valley through Ivrea, Aosta and Morgex and ends at Courmayeur; it is tolled and in places has only one lane each way. Alongside runs the SS26, free and slower, which passes through every village. Coming from Milan you take the A4 to Santhia and then the A5.

The Mont Blanc tunnel, opened in 1965, is eleven and a half kilometres long and links Courmayeur to Chamonix; the Great St Bernard, from 1964, leads into Switzerland towards Martigny. Both are tolled and expensive, but in winter they are the only way.

For the campsites you leave at the exit for the valley you want and climb: the roads are surfaced and well kept but narrow, with hairpins, and some have limits for long vehicles. With a caravan it is worth asking the campsite before setting off.

By train

The railway reaches Aosta from Chivasso by way of Ivrea, and continues to Pre-Saint-Didier only as a partial service. It is a slow line and in recent years electrification works have broken it in places, with replacement buses: check the timetable the day before. Valley buses climb into the side valleys from the stations.

By plane

Aosta airport has no regular scheduled flights. The nearest useful ones are Turin Caselle, a little over an hour away, Geneva, which on the other side of Mont Blanc is two hours through the tunnel, and Milan Malpensa, two hours.